Few things are more remarkable in the Parliamentary history of the Home
Rule movement than the complete absence from the counsels of the English
advocates of Home Rule of any definite and settled policy as to the form
of self-government to be offered to Ireland, and their consequent
oscillation between proposals radically differing from one another.
Since the "new departure" initiated by Davitt and Devoy in 1878,[20] it
has been the deliberate practice of Irish Nationalists to abstain from
defining the Nationalist demand and to ask in general terms for
"self-government," doubtless with the object of attracting the support
of all who favour any change which could be described by that very
elastic term. Such a policy has its advantages. But confusion of
thought, however favourable to popular agitation, is a disadvantage when
the moment for legislation arrives; and uncertainty as to the aim goes
far to explain the vacillation in Home Rule policy.
Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bill of 1886 would have given to Ireland the
substance of "responsible" or colonial self-government, subject only to
certain reservations and restrictions, the value of which will be
considered later in this chapter, and would have excluded the Irish
members and representative peers from the Parliament of the United
Kingdom. By the Bill of 1893 the reservations and restrictions were
increased, and representatives of Ireland were to be permitted to sit at
Westminster--by the Bill as introduced for some purposes, and by the
Bill as passed by the House of Commons for all purposes.
After the defeat of this second Bill, a "cold fit" appears to have
seized the Liberal Party. Lord Rosebery, in 1894, declared that before
Home Rule could be carried England, as the predominant partner, must be
convinced. Sir Edward Grey in 1905 declared that his party on its return
to power would "go on with Sir Anthony MacDonnell's policy," which he
rightly described as a policy of large administrative reforms; and Mr.
Asquith "associated himself entirely and unreservedly with every word"
of Sir Edward Grey's speech.[21] Accordingly the Irish Council Bill
proposed by Mr. Asquith's Government in 1907 was purely a measure of
devolution, certain administrative functions only being put under the
control of an Irish Council, subject to the veto of the Lord Lieutenant,
and the whole legislative power remaining in the Parliament of the
United Kingdom. This proposal, having been condemned by a National
Convention at Dublin, was incontinently withdrawn.
In the years succeeding this fiasco the Liberal policy for Ireland
appeared to be at the mercy of shifting winds. For some time Liberal
speakers contented themselves with vague declarations in favour of
Federalism or "Home Rule all round"--phrases which may mean much or
little according to the sense in which they are used. More recently an
able writer,[22] while admitting that "there is no public opinion in
Ireland as to the form of the Irish Constitution," has argued in a work
of 350 pages in favour of the grant to Ireland of full legislative,
administrative and financial autonomy; while a member of the
Government[23] declared that fiscal autonomy for all practical purposes
means separation and the disintegration of the United Kingdom. In a
publication recently issued by a committee of Liberals, comprising
several members of the present Government,[24] two views directly
contrary to one another are put forward, one writer arguing for a
devolution to an Irish body of "definite and defined powers only," and
another for the grant of the widest possible form of Home Rule and the
exclusion from Westminster of all Irish representation. The latest
official pronouncements indicate that the Government have it in their
minds to revert to the Gladstonian form of Home Rule; but even now[25]
no one outside the Cabinet, and possibly few inside that inner circle,
would venture on a confident prophecy even as to the broad lines of the
measure which in a few days may be submitted to Parliament as
representing the urgent and considered demand of public opinion.